The Legend of Zelig: Twilight Prince
by Midna3452
Summary: Link and Midna are somehow transported to another realm! Their only hope of getting back is with the help of two people who seem strangely familiar . . . Some TP spoilers. Possible LinkXMidna and OCXOC later on. DISCONTINUED.
1. Lily and Mika

**AN: Alright, for those of you who've read my stories, I know that i have others to work on! This idea just popped into my head and I just had to turn it into a fanfic. This story isn't supposed to be that long, but who knows how long it'll turn out in the end? Anyways, please read and review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Link and Midna or anything Zelda-related. I do, however, own Lily, Mika, and Zelig.**

**The Legend of Zelig: Twilight Prince**

**Lily and Mika**

"Midna!" I called, putting my sword away as the imp popped out of my shadow. I had just gotten the master sword from the sacred grove after Zant had put a curse on me so I couldn't turn back into a human. I had managed to find the sword as Zelda had suggested before she joined her soul with Midna's, when I was ambushed by some Twilit Messengers. I made short work of them and was ready to go visit Telma to see if she had any ideas of where I needed to go next, but first I wanted to check up on Ilia to see if she had gotten any of her memory back.

"What is it, Link?" Midna asked, floating in front of me. It was still sort of odd for me to see her in her solid form when there was no Twilight around. I could see her much better now since I didn't have to strain my eyes to see what was around me.

"Let's go to Kakariko Village," I said. "I want to go see Ilia."

"Alright, but don't forget that we need to go find the Twilight Mirror!" Midna reminded me. I nodded and Midna pulled out the Dark Crystal that we'd just gotten. She had told me that I could use it to turn into a wolf at will, and sure enough, as soon as it touched my forehead my body began to shift. Even after all the times I'd transformed before, I still didn't like the feel of all my bones rearranging. I glanced up at the portal and I could have sworn that it was still red, not green like it was supposed to be when I'd killed the Messengers. But just as I was about to point that out to Midna, my body dissolved into Twilight squares and I was whisked away to Kakariko Village.

I materialized at the edge of the spring and Midna plopped down onto my back. I was about to start walking but Midna pulled on my ear, signaling for me to wait.

"Link, I just have one _tiny_ suggestion," she said, leaning over so she could talk softly into my ear. "Unless you want everyone to run screaming when they see you, might I suggest that you turn into a human before you go barging into the village?"

She had a point there. My past experiences had taught me that most people don't take too kindly to random wolves showing up out of nowhere. I nodded to Midna and she touched my head with the Crystal. She went back into my shadow as I was transformed back into a human. Just as I was about to go over to Renado's sanctuary, someone caught my eye. The person was walking towards Malo's shop, and I assumed it was a girl by the long, dirty-blonde hair flowing down her back. But what really made me stare was her outfit: it was the same as mine! She even had my floppy green hat!

"Hey, you!" I called, running over to her. "Hey, where'd you get that outf-" I stopped mid-sentence when she turned around. Her face was almost a mirror image of mine, and I could tell she noticed the similarity too by the way her ice-blue eyes widened when she caught sight of me.

"Who the heck are you?!" she asked, looking at my outfit. She was only a few inches shorter than me, so she didn't have to look up that high to glare at me.

"I should as you the same question!" I replied. "Where'd you get that outfit?!"

"Where'd you get yours?!" she countered.

"I asked you first!"

"Yeah, well I asked who you were first, and you still didn't answer me!"

"That's because I want to know who _you_ are!"

"You tell me and then I'll tell you."

"Deal," I said, holding out my hand. "I'm Link."

"Lily," she replied, shaking my hand but never taking her eyes off mine.

"Okay, nice to meet you Lily," I said, letting my hand drop to my side as she let go. "Now, where did you get your outfit?"

"Well if you haven't heard- which, clearly, you haven't- this outfit is the garb worn by the Hero Chosen by the Goddesses," she explained. "I'm wearing it because I _am_ said hero."

"_You_?!" I questioned, raising one eyebrow. "_I'm_ the Hero Chosen by the Goddesses!"

"How dare you imply that I'm lying?! How could you be the hero when I already am?!"

"I wonder the same thing about you! Now, I don't know how you got here, but I suggest that you leave."

"Why should I leave when I was here first?!"

"Wrong, _I_ was here first! In case you didn't know, _I'm_ the one who's been clearing away the Twilight that's been covering Hyrule, and _I _was the one who made that green warp portal over there!" I yelled, pointing to the portal over by the spring.

"Uh, are you color blind or something? That portal's red!" Lily said, and my mouth opened in shock as I saw that she was right. "Look, I don't know who the heck you think you are, but _I'm_ the one that's been clearing away the Twilight. And now if you don't mind, I'd like to get going so I can go save the Prince!"

"The _Prince_?" I questioned, turning back to her.

"Yeah, Prince Zelig. Please, tell me you know who Prince Zelig is . . ."

"No, I have no clue of who you're talking about. I only know Princess Zelda."

"Have you been living in a hole?! Prince Zelig is the ruler of all of Hyrule! And who the heck is Zelda?"

"Oh no, Midna, what did you do?!" I groaned, glancing down at my shadow.

"Who's Midna?" Lily asked.

"Uh, no one," I replied quickly.

"Listen, weirdo, you'd better get out of here now or so help me I'll- hey!" Lily exclaimed as she caught sight of her shadow. Even though she was facing the sun, it looked as if her shadow had somehow moved around to the front of her so it was nearly touching mine.

"Um, is it supposed to do that?" I asked as she tried to stomp on it. As soon as her foot came down, her shadow shifted so that her foot didn't touch any part of it.

"What was that?!" she asked, her head snapping up as we heard a giggle come from my shadow.

"Nothing- wait, come with me!" I said as I had an idea.

"What the heck are you doing?!" she asked as I grabbed her wrist and dragged her over to a little cave next to the spring. She wrenched her hand away and glared at me as I stopped in the middle.

"There's someone in your shadow, isn't there?" I asked.

"Wha- no, are you crazy?! How could there be someone in my shadow?! What makes you think that?!" she asked nervously.

"Because I know what its like," I replied.

"There's someone in your shadow too?!"

"Ha, you just admitted someone's hiding in your shadow!"

"But I- aw, crap. Well, if the same thing's true for you, show me."

"And you'll show me who's with you?"

"Sure."

"Okay, it's a deal. Midna!" I called, and it was Lily's turn to be surprised as Midna came out of my shadow and leaned on my shoulder.

"Well well, what do we have here?" Midna said, grinning impishly. "A little Link look-alike?"

"Mika, you'd better get out here and see this . . .," Lily said, and I watched with amazement as another imp popped out of her shadow. He looked almost exactly like Midna, but his hair was short and he had on a pair of blue pants held up by a rope tied around his waist.

"Hello, _Mika_," Midna said, crossing her arms in front of her.

"What's up, _Midna_?" the other imp who I assumed was Mika asked, crossing his arms just like Midna.

"Do you two know eachother?!" Lily asked.

"Of course not!" Mika replied. "I think I'd remember someone who looked like _her_."

"Hey, you're not so pretty yourself!" Midna retorted.

"Never said I was!"

"Oh yeah? Well-"

"Guys, you look just like eachother!" I yelled.

"We do _not_!" they yelled at the same time.

"I look nothing like this _child_!" Mika said.

"_Child_?!" Midna yelled. "I'll show you a child!" She formed a ball of energy between her hands and Mika did the same.

"NO!" Lily and I both screamed as they shot the blasts at eachother. We both managed to grab our respective imps before the blasts could hit, and they exploded against the walls of the cave, making two very large dents.

"Link, let me go!" Midna screamed, struggling in my grasp. I could tell Lily was having trouble with Mika too, and she gave up after a moment and let go of him.

"Don't grab me like that!" he yelled at her, floating up out of her reach and brushing himself off. Midna slipped out of my grasp as I lost my focus on her and floated up to Mika's level.

"Alright, both of you calm down!" Lily said, standing up as the imps began to snarl at eachother. "I don't know what the heck is going on, but we're never going to figure it out if you two destroy eachother!"

"But-" Midna started to say.

"Midna, calm down," I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her down towards me. She glared at me for a moment and then seemed to calm down as she looked into my eyes.

"Mika, please try to be nice," I heard Lily tell him. I glanced over and saw that she was looking at him the same way that I looked at Midna, and sure enough he seemed to calm down.

"Alright, I understand that _we're_ the ones who aren't supposed to be here, but I still don't have any idea of where_ here_ is exactly," I said, and Lily looked at me.

"Well, you're in Hyrule, in Kakariko Village," she said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. You do know where that is right?"

"Yeah, but if we're still in Kakariko Village . . . hey Midna, any chance we could be in another realm or something?"

"Well, maybe . . . but, I've never heard of that happening before," Midna replied, sitting down in midair and resting her chin on her hand as she thought about it. "Then again, I've never heard of being turned into an imp before either . . ."

"You were _turned into_ an imp? You weren't one before?" I asked her, confused. Had I heard her right? "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing," she replied quickly, looking away from my gaze. I noticed that Mika's eyes narrowed as she said that.

"What was that about not being an imp?" he questioned, and she turned to look at him.

"I said it was nothing . . .," she trailed off as their eyes both widened slightly, and it looked like some unspoken realization had passed between them.

"Link, maybe we _are_ in another dimension," Midna said, turning to me. "I mean, look at Lily and look at you. You guys are almost exactly the same! The only difference is that you're a boy and she's a girl! Maybe this realm is just an opposite of ours!"

"Yeah, maybe . . .," I said as I thought about what Lily had said before about the royal family.

"Well, if you say that Hyrule is ruled by a princess and I know for a fact that Hyrule is ruled by a prince with a very similar name, then I'm willing to believe that," Lily said, and it seemed as if she was reading my mind.

"That's exactly what I was thinking!" I exclaimed.

"See, that further encourages your theory," Mika added. "If you two are thinking the same thing, then you_ are_ probably from a parallel dimension."

"Okay, it's great that we have some idea of what happened and all, but that still doesn't explain go we're going to get back or how we got here in the first place," Midna pointed out.

"Well, what did you guys do right before you came here?" Lily asked.

"I asked Midna to warp me to Kakariko village," I replied.

"Well, then maybe you guys just have to warp back," Lily suggested.

"Alright, we'll try it . . .," I said. I had a feeling that ii wasn't going to be that simple. Apparently Lily felt the same way.

"But, if that doesn't work, we'll keep trying until you guys find a way back home," she reassured me.

"Yeah, Lily's not the type to give up to easily," Mika said, and Lily smiled at him. It looked like there was something that had happened between them that I could tell made Mika mean what he said.

"Link's the same way," Midna said, and I knew she was remembering how I'd gone out of my way to save her when Zant had nearly killed her, even though I could have just left her in the road and gone to see Zelda myself. She smiled gratefully at me and I smiled back. Everyone looked at eachother for a moment before Mika finally spoke.

"Well, are we just gonna stand here or are we gonna try and find a way for you two to get back?"

"Alright, let's go," I said, and Midna went into my shadow and Mika went into Lily's as we stepped out of the cave and walked over to the portal . . .

* * *

**A/N: Ooh, a cliffie! I'm so evil, aren't I? Anyways, please review! **


	2. Memories and Balance Problems

**A/N: Thanks to evryone who reviewed! I'll just get straight to the chapter this time.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own nuthin'.**

**Memories and Balance Problems**

Lily and I walked over to the spring and stopped at the edge where we were out of sight of any people who happened to be walking around the Village that day.

"Okay, Midna, you can come out now," I said, and Midna popped out of my shadow as Mika popped out of Lily's.

"We might as well try to warp to _our_ Kakariko Village," Midna suggested, leaning against my shoulder.

"Sure," I replied. I turned to Lily and Mika. "Well, if we don't see you guys again, it was nice meeting you." I held out my hand and Lily shook it and smiled at me.

"Same here," she said, and Mika just nodded.

"Okay Midna, to Kakariko Village!" I said, and I felt my body shift into wolf form as Midna touched my head with the crystal. Lily's eyes widened and it looked like she was about to say something but she was cut off as my body dissolved into twilight squares and I was whisked away to Kakariko Village. I reappeared facing the spring, and Midna landed on my back.

"Well, how nice of you all to visit," I heard someone say, and I whirled around to find Mika and Lily standing exactly where they were a few seconds ago.

"Aw man, it didn't work!" Midna said, and I growled in frustration. She touched my head with the crystal and I was turned back into a human.

"You can turn into a wolf too?!" Lily gasped, looking amazed.

"Yeah, can you?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Of course she can. Wanna see?" Mika said, smiling evilly. He pulled out something that looked almost exactly like the Dark Crystal, but instead of orange, the markings on it were green.

"Oh no, Mika don't-" Lily was cut off as the imp touched her forehead and she turned into a wolf. She looked just like me, only her fur was a lighter shade of grey. She even had the same mark on her forehead from when Zant had put the curse on me, and she had a chain around her ankle. She growled as Mika sat down on her back.

"Oh, calm down," he said, leaning over to talk into her ear. He glanced up at me. "I'm sure old Linky-boy here has to go through the same thing, am I right?"

"Well, yeah, but . . . maybe you should turn her back into a human," I said, and Mika scowled at me.

"You light-dwellers are no fun," he muttered as he floated off Lily's back and turned her back into her human form.

"I know how you feel," Midna said, looking at him sympathetically. "Sometimes Link is so boring that I don't know how I've made it this far . . ."

"Hey!" I exclaimed, and Midna smiled at me and giggled.

"Just ignore them," Lily said, walking over and putting a hand on my shoulder as I glared at Midna. "I have a feeling that it's not going to get any better . . ."

"Hey, you guys should come with us," Mika suggested. "I'm sure Lily could use some extra help."

"I can take perfectly good care of myself and you know it!" Lily shouted.

"Uh-huh, I'm just sayin' that-"

"Mika, shut up! Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't fend for myself! What about the time I saved you, huh? I wasn't so helpless then, was I?" Mika's amused smile was replaced by a glare.

"_Don't_ remind me of that," he snapped, and Lily smiled triumphantly.

"You saved him?" Midna asked, suddenly seeming very interested in their conversation.

"Yes, I did," Lily replied, and Mika crossed his arms in front of him and looked down. "Can I tell them, Mika?"

"Sure, they probably know anyways," he grumbled.

"Alright then, let me tell you guys what we're trying to do exactly," Lily explained, and Midna and I listened intently. "You see, Mika is from another realm. It sort of the opposite of Hyrule, from what he's told me. Like, instead of it being sunny it's in Twilight all the time. He called it the Twilight Realm. Anyway, he was apparently banished from there and now he can't get back until we find this thing called, um . . . what was it again?"

"The Mirror of Twilight," Mika said.

"Oh, that's right," Lily went on, seeming not to notice how me and Midna's mouths opened in shock. "So now we're going to find the Mirror of Twilight so we can go into the Twilight Realm and get the person who banished Mika. She also tried to kill him, but I managed to get him to Price Zelig before it was too late and he saved him. But, now I don't really know what happened to the Prince, so I'm trying to find him _and_ find the person who banished Mika because, not only did she try to kill him, she also put a curse on me and I had to go find a special sword to have it removed."

As Lily concluded her speech, Midna and I looked at eachother, shocked.

"That . . . that's exactly what happened to us!" I exclaimed.

"Really?!" Lily asked, surprised.

"What did you say that person's name was again? The one who banished you?" Midna asked Mika.

"Zanta," he replied, and Midna's expression turned even more shocked, if that was possible.

"Zant-_a_?" she asked, and Mika nodded.

"We're trying to find _Zant_," I said. "And I think what happened to you was the same thing that happened to us, only we had to go see Princess Zelda. Did Zanta find you at a spring that was home to a light spirit?"

"Yeah, Lanuryu Spring," Lily confirmed.

"Maybe we _should_ go with them," Midna said, looking at me. "I mean, if they're trying to do almost the exact same thing as us, maybe we'll find a way to get back to our realm along the way. Maybe we'll even find the Twilight Mirror and figure out how to defeat Zant!"

"Yeah, that's a good idea," I said, nodding. "You guys don't mind if we come along?"

"No, it's fine," Lily reassured me. "We have some other things to do as well, though, so we might be making a few detours."

"What_ kind_ of detours?" Midna questioned.

"Well, for one thing, I'm trying to help my friend get his memory back," Lily explained. "He was taken from my hometown by bulblins along with some other children, and I tried to follow them but I was hit in the head and knocked out. When I woke up, I tried to look for them but I came across a Twilight Gate and I was pulled into the Twilight and transformed into a wolf . . . Mika found me and helped me get out of the dungeon where I was being kept, and he's been traveling with me ever since. I've been helping him as I was trying to look for my friends because he said there might have been some clues to where they had gone. Anyways, to make a long story short, I eventually found them but my dearest friend, whom I've known all my life, lost his memory somehow and he doesn't even remember who I am . . . we've been trying to help him regain it, but so far nothing's worked . . ." Lily looked at the ground sadly and Mika put his arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, don't feel bad," he said. "We'll help him somehow, we just gotta keep trying! Besides, with Link and Midna here, maybe we'll find a way to help him sooner then you think!" He smiled at Lily and she half-smiled back.

"I have the same problem," I said, remembering Ilia back home and wishing that I could go see how she was doing. Lily's story had reminded me of just how much I missed her and wished she had her memory back. "She doesn't remember who I am either."

"What's her name?" Lily asked, looking up at me.

"Ilia," I replied and she smiled and shook her head. "What?!"

"This is getting too weird," she said. "My friend's name is Illias."

"No way," I said, and Lily smiled again.

"Yes way. He's in that tent over there." She pointed to a tent that was looked just like Renado's.

"Let me guess, a Shaman lives there?" I asked.

"Yup, Renata. She's been taking care of the kids while I've been helping Mika." She looked in the window. "In fact, I think she's coming out right now."

I turned towards the house as the door opened. Mika and Midna quickly went back into the shadows as a woman came out. She had the same skin color, same hair, and the same dress as Renado. The only difference was that her face was a lot more feminine, as was her figure.

"Lily, I see you've made a new friend," she said, stopping in front of us and smiling. She bowed slightly. "My name is Renata."

"Uh, I'm Link," I said as she straightened up.

"How nice to meet you, Link." She smiled at me and then turned to Lily. "Lily, I just wanted to tell you that Illias doing fine, although we sill haven't found a way to get his memory back."

"I figured as much," Lily sighed. "Oh well, I'm sure we'll find a way soon enough."

"I'm sure we will. I'm confident that you'll find some clues as to what happened to him on your travels."

"Yeah, I there has to be _something_ out there . . ." Lily's eyebrows scrunched together as she thought about it.

"Maybe we could check the bar where you found him," I suggested, and Lily looked at me suspiciously.

"Alright, we'll go there," she said. She turned to Renata. "If you'll excuse us, we really have to be on our way."

"Of course, of course," Renata said, waving us away.

"Good luck!" she called as Lily and I started walking down the street. We waved and then Lily turned to me.

"I never told you I found Illias in the bar," she hissed.

"Well, I just assumed that, since that's where I found Ilia, that's was probably where you found your friend," I explained. "Besides, I was going to head to the bar myself, but I was warped here and now I have no clue of how to get back, so I figured I'd just see if _your_ bar has any clues."

"Huh, that's kind of clever," Lily commented.

"Thanks, I try my best," I said, smiling, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, let's just get going so you can find a way out of here," she said. "You're starting to sound like Mika . . ."

"Hey!" We heard a yell from her shadow and we laughed.

_Maybe this realm isn't so bad after all,_ I thought. _I mean, if we find a way to get home, I wouldn't mind coming back here . . ._

"Link, watch out!" Lily yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts

"Wha-" was all I got to say before I ran smack-dab into a wall. Lily doubled over with laughter as I held my face. We were far enough away from the village that Midna and Mika came out of the shadows to laugh at me as well.

"You know what? Forget it! Let's just find a way out of he- whoa!" I yelled as I tripped on a tree root and fell flat onto my face. This only made the others crack up even more, until they were literally howling with laughter. I started grumbling as I stood up and checked to make sure my nose wasn't broken. When I saw that it was fine, I wiped the dirt off my tunic and started walking.

"Hey genius, wrong way!" Midna managed to call out before the laughter overcame her. I whirled around and stomped off in the direction of Hyrule Field. I kept going as I heard Lily running to catch up and Midna went back into my shadow. We continued on with the occasional snickers from Lily, who tried her best to hide it. I started to walk faster until I was actually running, ready to get the heck out of this place.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, from now on this story is going to pretty much follow the plot of the game, starting from when they have to go to the desert to find the mirror. If you haven't gotten that far, there will be major spoilers, so be warned! Please review!**


	3. Off to the Desert

**A/N: I've been trying to find all the dialougue from the game but if I miss some I'm sorry!**

**Disclaimer: Sigh. Zelda is owned by Nintendo, not me . . . **

**Off to the Desert**

"Ugh, isn't there any other way to travel besides on foot around here?!" I asked. We had been walking for a good while and we were still only about halfway to the bar.

"Link has a point," Mika said from the shadows. "You might want to call your horse or something if you want to make it to the bar before nightfall."

"Oh, right, Epono!" Lily exclaimed.

"You didn't even remember you had a horse?!" I yelled, frustrated.

"Well, _sorry_ if I have other things on my mind!" Lily snapped back. "Geez, you need to relax once in a while!"

"I would like to, but seeing as I have a quest to complete, there's not a lot of time for that!"

"Yeah, well-"

"Oh my goddesses, will you both SHUT UP?!" Midna yelled, popping out of my shadow and making us stop dead in our tracks. "This bickering has been going on since we left the village, and if you two don't stop right now, I swear _you won't be happy_!"

"Alright, calm down!" I said as Mika came out to see what was going on.

"Don't you tell me to calm down, dog boy!" Midna snapped.

"You know, you have a really bad temper . . ."

"A bad temper?! A BAD TEMPER?! I'LL SHOW YOU A BAD TEMPER!"

"Midna, Midna, relax!" Mika said, quickly flying over to her as her hair turned into a fist. I took a few steps back to give her some space as Mika put his arms around her shoulders to calm her. She eventually stopped snarling at me and her hair returned to its normal ponytail.

"Sorry, Link," she said, looking at the ground as if she was ashamed. "I'm just really stressed right now . . ."

"Hey, it's okay," I reassured her. Mika let go of her and floated over to Lily.

"It's just . . . I mean, with the whole Zant thing and then there's the whole fate of Hyrule as well as the Twilight Realm and I don't want Zant to hurt you again like he did before so I just want to get to him as soon as possible but he keeps stopping us and I don't know what to do and I just. . ." she trailed off as she actually started to cry. Startled, since I'd never seen her cry before, I quickly reached out and scooped her up in a hug. She wrapped her arms around my neck and cried into my shoulder.

"Midna, it's gonna be okay, don't cry," I said comfortingly. I saw Lily and Mika walk off to give us some privacy. I squeezed Midna reassuringly when she wrapped her arms around me tighter. She stopped crying after a little while and just lay there, sniffling.

"Link . . . there's something I need to tell you," she said. She put her arms on my shoulders and held herself up so she could look into my eyes.

"There's something you need to know about my past . . . I'm-"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off as Lily let out a gasp and quickly ran over to us.

"Link, we gotta run! Bulblins!" She yelled, pointing behind me. I turned and saw a horde of bulblins charging at us, screeching in their weird language.

"Midna, I'm sorry, but we gotta go," I said, and she nodded and went back into my shadow. Luckily, there was some horse grass nearby and Lily used it to call her horse. Of course, it looked just like Epona, and I quickly helped Lily up as she grabbed onto the reigns. I jumped up behind her and she clicked her tongue and shook the reigns as soon as I was on. The horse started to gallop and Lily kicked it into a run, narrowly avoiding the flaming arrows that were being shot at us.

We rode all the way to castle town, only slowing down when we were sure the bulblins were gone. We hopped off Epona when we got to the bridge and we made our way over to the bar. When we entered, we were greeted by a large, burly man standing behind the counter.

"Well, well . . . If it isn't Lily! You made it! How've you been, little lady?! Mercy, but you have good timing. I was just talking about you!" he greeted us in a southern Hyrule drawl.

"I've been good, Thomas," Lily replied.

"Ah, good, good. Well now, who do we have here? Is this your brother?" the man who I assumed was Thomas asked, catching sight of me.

"My brother?! Who, Link?!" Lily asked. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye and I nodded slightly. It would be best to just say we were related, so as not to arouse suspicion. I was pretty sure that if people saw us looking exactly like eachother but claiming not to be related, someone would eventually begin to think something was up. And it was twice as likely that something like that would happen since everyone was already on edge.

"Well, it's nice to meet you . . . Link, is it?" Thomas asked, reaching out his hand. I shook it and nodded. He took his hand back and smiled at me.

"Now, you be sure to help your sister out, you hear? She's on a very important quest! Oh, and speaking of which . . ." He turned towards the back of the bar. Lily and I followed his gaze and saw three people sitting at a table looking at a map.

"Hey, everyone! Introduce yourselves! This pretty little lady is the infamous Lily! And she's here with her brother, too." Thomas called, and the people at the table looked up and waved. We waved back and then turned out attention back to Thomas as he looked at Lily. "You remember what I told you before, Lily? These are those friends I mentioned, the ones who are trying to help deal with all the troubles in Hyrule. Actually, there's one more of us, but there's been a disturbing turn of events in the eastern desert, so she's gone to check it out. She's an older woman named Aria. If you happen to meet her, definitely take the time to talk with her, OK, little lady? Well, you've come all the way here, so why don't you two relax a bit. Why don't you be sociable and talk to these folks? They're a fun bunch!"

"Okay, thanks!" Lily said, and Thomas just smiled and nodded. Instead of going to the back of the bar, Lily took one of my sleeves and pulled me over to a table in the main area.

"I'm assuming you know what's going on, right?" she asked as we sat down.

"Well, I mean, the bartender in my realm told me that she had a group of friends who were trying to help with Hyrule, but I haven't met them yet," I replied.

"Okay, well, I haven't met these guys either, so at least we're on the same page," Lily said. "Let's go talk to them and see if they know anything that could help us."

"Alright," I replied as she stood up. I followed her to the back of the bar and we were first greeted by a woman with glasses. She looked young, and she had on an odd outfit that had the collar pulled up all the way to her chin.

"Oh, hello there! You must be Lily correct?" the woman asked.

"Yes, and this is my brother, Link," Lily said, gesturing to me.

"I'm Shari. Wonderful to meet you," the woman said, smiling at us. "Thomas told me all you've been up to, Lily. You're rather formidable! I'm rather NOT, I'm afraid. Well, I'm formidable at book reading, but I lack, shall we say, physical skills. That said, if the history and legends of Hyrule are your cup of tea, I'm the person to talk to! If you're curious, just ask away!"

"Okay, thanks, maybe some other time?" Lily asked, and Shari nodded in agreement. We then walked over to a man that was bending over the map. He looked even younger than Shari, and he had jet black hair and what looked like a knight's outfit on.

". . . It's Ash," the man said. "I grew up in the mountains with my mother, who was a knight in her own right. She taught me the arts of war as though I was her daughter. Of course, lessons in common courtesy were not part of the regimen, so forgive me if I come off rude, yeah?"

"No, it's fine," Lily reassured him. "I'm Lily and this is Link."

"Nice to meet ya both!" He crossed his arms in front of him and shook one of Lily's and one of my hands at the same time. "Listen, before I blab both of your ears off, I want to tell you something. Snowpeak, the mountain to the north of Hyrule . . . It's unlike any mountain I've ever known. I don't know much yet, but things happen there on no other mountain I know of . . . Evil controls it . . . As soon as I know something more, I'll tell you. Until then, you should stay away, yeah?"

"Thanks for the warning," I said as Lily just smiled and moved on to the last person. It was what appeared to be a woman, but she had a helmet over her head so we couldn't see what she really looked like. She looked at us for a moment before speaking.

"It has been a long time." She then uncrossed her arms and took the helmet off. Lily's face brightened as soon as she saw the woman's face. She looked sort of like Rusl, only without the beard, and her face also had that feminine look to it.

"Rachel!" Lily exclaimed, throwing her arms around the woman.

"Lily!" she said, hugging her back. She smiled when Lily released her and looked at me. "And you are Lily's brother?!"

"Yes, my name's Link," I said, shaking her hand. She looked at me curiously.

"Lily never mentioned having a brother," Rachel remarked. I blinked as I realized that I had no story to back up the statement I'd just said.

"Um, I live just outside Hyrule," I said, thinking quickly. "Lily and I were . . . separated at birth, and we just recently found eachother while Lily was exploring the woods near my home. I just decided to come with her to see if I could help her out."

"Well, what a lucky find that must have been!" Rachel laughed, and Lily and I laughed along nervously.

"So, Rachel, how did you get here?" Lily asked, hoping to move on from the previous subject.

"Oh, my husband, Uri, sent word to me," Rachel explained. "I have seen the children in Kakariko Village! And, of course, I have also heard of your adventures! I must thank you for your help with Colleen, Lily. I barely recognize her . . . In any case, I am troubled by my own inaction. I want to help the cause. These friends here . . . I have had a connection with them for a long while. Like the others, I am gathering information now. I will let you know if I hear anything." She put her helmet back on and turned to study the map again. Lily and I looked at eachother and shrugged. We walked around to the front of the table and Lily took out her map that she carried with her.

"Hey . . . yours is exactly the same as mine!" I exclaimed when I saw her map. I pulled mine out of my pocket and laid it down next to hers.

"Weird," Lily remarked. "Well, we might as well see if there's anything to mark . . . hey, what's this symbol right here?" She pointed to a red circle surrounding a place in Lake Hylia.

"That old codger Aria is at Lake Hylia, studying the desert," Telma remarked, overhearing Lily's question.

"Let's try to find her and see if she can give us any leads," I suggested, and Lily agreed as we scribbled down the mark on our maps. We put our maps away and started to leave. On our way out, Lily stopped to pat a fluffy white cat. The cat meowed and licked Lily's fingers, making Lily giggle. She stood up when she realized I was watching her and we walked out of the bar.

"That cat . . . helped me once," Lily explained after the door had closed behind us.

"It was when Mika was dying, wasn't it?" I asked, and Lily nodded sadly, remembering. "Well, let's not dwell on that now! Mika's okay!" She still looked sad, so I took her hand in mine and squeezed it reassuringly.

"I'm fine," she sighed, letting go of my hand. "Let's just go to the lake."

"If you want to take a break we can. It looks like you need a rest-"

"I said I'm fine! I don't need any help!"

"Alright, sorry!"

"Look, it's not you," Lily said, when I started to walk away. "I've just been living on my own for pretty much my whole life, and I'm just not used to having help, especially form a boy."

"What's that suppose to mean?!" I asked.

"I'm assuming that in your realm all the guards and knights and warriors are guys, right?" Lily asked, and I nodded. "Yeah, well, that's not the case here. In _my_ realm, all of those kinds of jobs are taken by the women. The other, less dangerous jobs are left for the men to handle."

"What kind of system is that?!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, you think girls can't handle themselves? What about Midna?"

"I'm helping her!"

"Oh really? Is that the case, or is _she_ really helping _you_?"

"Look, Lily, I know you're trying to be all brave so you don't look like you need help, but in reality, I think you do."

"Is that what you think? That I can't take care of myself?"

"I don't think, I _know_. Hey, what are you- whoa!" I exclaimed as Lily pulled her sword out of its scabbard and pointed it at me so fast that I could barely follow its movements.

"How's _that_ for taking care of myself?" she sneered, the tip of her sword just inches from my throat. "If I didn't feel the need to help you, you'd have been dead a _long_ time ago."

"O-okay, I get it, you can handle yourself! Can you put the sword away now?" I asked nervously.

"Only if you promise not to patronize me."

"Alright, I promise! Whew," I let out a sigh of relief as she put her sword away. I glared at her. "Don't do that again."

"Don't patronize me again."

"Agreed." I held out my hand and she shook it and then smiled ruefully at me.

"Well, we might as well go find Aria," Lily said. "Mika!"

"What is it, Lily?" Mika asked, popping out of her shadow.

"Let's warp to Lake Hylia. There's a woman there who-"

"Wait- _warp_ there?" I said, cutting her off as Midna came out of my shadow.

"Well, yeah . . . oh, right, you can't really warp anywhere," Lily remembered. "That's gonna be a problem."

"Actually, we're only prevented from warping back to _our_ realm," Midna said. "I'm pretty sure we can go anywhere in this realm that you guys can go."

"There's only one way to find out," Mika said. "You ready, Lily?" She nodded and he pulled out his version on the Dark Crystal. He touched her forehead and she was turned into a wolf. They dissolved into twilight squares and Midna and I followed suit. We reappeared in Lake Hylia, near Fyer's cannon ride. I saw that Midna had been right about warping where Lily and Mika did when I turned around and found Lily standing behind me, already in her human from. Midna quickly changed me into a human and went back into my shadow. Lily and I followed our maps until we came to a tall tower. It took a long time, but we eventually made it to the top to find a woman standing there with a hood over her head, looking out over the desert.

"I thought it was about time for you to arrive . . .," the woman said. She turned to us. "Mistress Lily, is it? Oh, and who is this?"

"Yes, I'm Lily and this is my brother, Link," Lily replied.

"Ah," the woman said, pulling down her hood and nodding like she understood. "You do know Thomas, don't you? I am Aria. I am part of the group that Thomas kindly allows to meet at his bar. I have heard all about your deeds from him, Mistress Lily. Now . . . You being courageous youths . . . You have likely heard of strange events in the desert and came to investigate, no? Or am I mistaken? You do know, don't you?"

Lily and I shook our heads and Aria turned towards the desert again. I saw that there were strange pillars protruding from the ground that I hadn't noticed before. I assumed Lily hadn't noticed them either by the way she was staring at them, looking sort of confused.

"The Gerudo Desert once held a prison built to hold the worst criminals this land has ever known . . .," Aria said. "The criminals who were sentenced to death were sent directly to the underworld by a cursed mirror that was kept in the prison . . . Now that prison is condemned, and even the road leading to the desert is impassable. This desert at world's end . . . It still holds the cursed mirror and the malice of the doomed inmates . . . These old bones know that the evil currently plaguing Hyrule is related to this wicked place. So I have come to learn the truth." She turned back to us. "Mistress Lily and Master Link, I must ask . . . What will you do now? Don't tell me you plan to enter the desert and confirm my suspicions with your own eyes?!"

"Actually, yes, we think something vital to the fate of Hyrule is there," I said, nodding.

"Yeah, and we're going to go check it out," Lily added.

"Ah, is that so . . . Then let good old Aria help you out . . . You see Lake Hylia below us? A woman named Fyra runs an amusement ride of sorts there. Give her this." Aria handed Lily a piece of worn paper that had some writing on it. "See, long ago, I saved this woman Fyra's life, and now she cannot refuse me if I ask a favor. If you leave the rest up to Fyra, all should go well."

"Thank you so much!" Lily said, smiling at Aria.

"May the Goddesses of Hyrule be with you both," said Aria, bowing slightly. I turned to go back down the ladder, but before I knew what had happened I heard Lily scream. I whipped around and ran to the side of the tower as her scream was cut off by a loud splash.

"Lily!" I called frantically, searching for any sign of her. All of a sudden she surfaced in the middle of the lake.

"Hey, Link, jump down here! It's really fun!" she called, waving up to me.

"Um, I'm not really sure . . .," I said nervously. It sure was a long way down . . .

"Aw, c'mon, Link! Have a little fun once in a while!" Lily said.

"Well, I- AHHHHHHH!" I screamed as I was suddenly pushed off the tower. At first I thought it had been Aria, but then I realized who it was when I heard someone giggling maniacaly from behind me. I fell down, down towards the lake, before finally landing with a huge splash. I quickly kicked my way back up to the surface and swam there, gasping for breath.

"Midna, don't you _ever_ do that again!" I yelled amid the giggles of her, Lily and Mika.

"You gotta admit it was pretty hilarious!" she said, floating just slightly above the water in front of me. I glared at her and then started to swim towards shore. When Lily and I had climbed out and dried off, we walked over to Fyra's hut. I shuddered, remembering my last cannon ride with Fyer. I hated that thing, and there I was, about to be shot out of one again. Oh well. Hopefully this would be the last time.

"Hey, buddy!" Fyra greeted Lily. She looked at me. "Well, you're dressed just like her now, ain't cha? You her brother or something?"

"Yup, I'm Link," I said, holding out my hand.

"Well, pleased to meet cha, Link!" Fyra said, taking my hand.

"Uh, Fyra, this is from Aria," Lily said, handing her the paper that Aria had given us.

"Hrrrm . . . From old Aria, huh?" Fyra asked, reading the paper. " . . . Ah well, I guess I oughta do what the old coot says . . . Oasis flight . . . right? So here you go, one of our secret options not available to the general public . . . This time's all paid for . . . so whaddaya say? You wanna go?" Lily and I nodded. "All righty, then . . . But remember, next time, you gotta pay! Sweet sailing, buddies. One for oasis . . . fire in the hole!"

We stepped inside the cannon and Fyra closed the door. It was a much tighter fit with both Lily and I in there at the same time, as she was soon to point out to me so that I had to scoot over so my back was completely against the wall to give her some space. We heard the strange circus music playing, and before we knew it we were being shot through the air towards the desert, off to find the Mirror of Twilight.

* * *

**A/N: Please review!**


	4. Sand, Sand, and More Sand

**A/N: Yay, another chapter! This one might be slighty random . . . in a good way though!**

**Disclaimer: -sniffle- I still don't own Zelda . . .**

**Sand, Sand, and More Sand**

I landed face first onto soft, golden sand. As soon as I tried to stand up, I heard Lily screaming and she landed right on top of me.

"OW! Get off!" I yelled, falling back onto the ground.

"Well, _excuuuse_ me!" Lily snapped, standing up and helping me to my feet. "Thanks for breaking my fall, by the way."

"Don't mention it. Really," I said as I wiped the sand off my tunic. I looked up and surveyed the place where we had landed. It was . . . big. No, more then big, it was HUGE! All I could see was sand, although I thought I could make out something that looked like a lopsided pillar sticking out of the ground in front of us.

"Hey, wanna head towards that thing?" I asked, tapping Lily on the shoulder and pointing to the strange pillar. She nodded and we started to walk. I paused as I heard Midna come out of my shadow.

"Wait, Link."

I turned to her as Mika popped out of Lily's shadow as well. Midna bit her lip and looked down, putting her hands behind her back. I knew this was going to be serious; Midna never acted like that when she was joking.

"Before we go on, there's something I want you to hear . . .," she said.

"Lily, you'd better listen to this too," Mika said, and I noticed that he was looking down as well. "I think I know what Midna's going to say, and it's very important."

"Yes, this probably applies to Mika too," Midna said, nodding at him as he looked up at her. She turned back to me. "Do you remember what the spirit said about the Fused Shadows? What do you think happened to the magic wielders who tried to rule the Sacred Realm? They were banished. They were chased across the sacred lands of Hyrule and driven into another realm by the goddesses."

She paused a moment and I could see that her eyes were distant, as if she was reliving a memory. She then continued.

"It was another world entirely . . . The antithesis of Hyrule, where the sun shines bright. Its denizens became shadows that could not mingle with the light. Eventually, most came to call it the Twilight Realm, and from it, none could return to the world of light . . . They were forever doomed to live in the twilight, flitting in the half-light of dusk, mere shadows of Hyrule . . . This is the history of the Twili as it has been passed down from our ancestors . . . Do you now understand what I am?"

I looked away, trying to make sense of what she was saying to me. If my guess was right, how could she not have told me before?! More importantly, how could I not have guessed?!

"I'm a descendant of the tribe that was banished to the Twilight Realm!" she snarled, clenching her fist. After a moment she seemed to calm down a little. "It was a peaceful place . . . until Zant took control of the Twilight Realm and transformed all of the Twili into shadow beasts. It's clear to me now that he somehow gained a great evil power previously unknown to our tribe . . . In any case, I was sent from there, and could no longer get into the Twilight Realm without his power . . . But there's another tale told by my people. Though the goddesses forbade us to return to the world of light, they left one link between the light and darkness. Something called the Mirror of Twilight was passed to the protectors of Hyrule . . ."

She floated around to the front of me so she could look me in the eye.

"It's our only path to the Twilight Realm . . . and we must get there!" she exclaimed. The determination faded from her eyes and turned to almost pleading as she gently laid her hand on my cheek. "You'll come with me . . . won't you?"

I smiled and placed my hand on top of hers.

"Midna, do you really think I'd leave you now, after all we've been through?" I asked, and I could see her starting to smile. "Of course I'll come with you."

"Thanks, Link," Midna said, smiling fully. I let go of her hand as we turned to Lily who was staring at Mika, looking shocked.

"Mika . . . is that all true?" Lily asked. Mika sighed.

"Yes, it's all true. Every word. Except for the Zant part. In my case that was Zanta," he said. He glanced up at her out of the corner of his eye. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

"Of course I'm not mad at you!" Lily exclaimed, surprised that he would think that.

"Then you'll come with me, too?" Mika asked hopefully.

"Absolutely!" Lily tilted Mika's chin up so he was looking her straight in the eyes. "We've been through too much for me to just leave you alone in the desert. Besides, do you really think I'm_ that_ mean?!"

Mika smiled and then he looked at me.

"Link . . . thanks for understanding too," he said. "You don't know how much this means to me-er, _us_." He smiled innocently at Midna and she rolled her eyes and giggled. Midna turned one last time to smile at me before going back into the shadows with Mika.

"Well, I guess we should go look for that mirror," Lily said, and I nodded. We began to walk along the sand when all of sudden Lily ducked and let out a shriek. I whipped around and just managed to avoid a monster that was coming straight towards my face.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!" Lily screeched, running over to stand behind me.

"I'm not sure . . .," I said, trying to see where it was since it had buried itself in the ground. I saw the sand moving towards us, and I had an idea. I quickly brought out my clawshot and used it to pull the monster out of the sand and over to us. I slashed it with my sword a few times before it let out a squeal of defeat and disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"Whoa, that was weird," Lily said, coming out from behind me.

"Uh, Lily? I don't think we're out of the woods just yet," I said as I saw some more sand moving towards us.

"'Out of the woods?' But we're in the-hey!" she exclaimed as I grabbed her hand and started to run. I saw a flat piece of rock sticking out of the sand and we ran over to it and stood in the middle. Lily shrieked again as another monster jumped out of the sand, but it misjudged the distance between us and ended up falling onto the rock that we were standing on. I killed it with a few quick slashes and did the same with the other monsters that were circling us.

"Are they gone?" Lily asked when the last one had exploded.

"Yup, I think so," I replied, scanning the sand for any more monsters.

"Okay, that's good," Lily said, sighing with relief. I looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

"I thought you weren't scared of anything," I said, and Lily blushed and looked down.

"I wasn't scared! I was just . . . surprised, that's all!" she retorted.

"Okay, whatever you say," I said, starting to walk off towards the pillar. I yelped as I was jerked back onto the ground.

"Listen to me, dog boy: I wasn't scared, I was surprised. You got that?" Lily asked, standing over me threateningly.

"Yeah, I got it, I got it!" I replied.

"Good." Lily turned on her heel and began walking towards the pillar.

"Why does every girl I meet have anger issues?!" I grumbled to myself as I stood up. I jumped as I felt something pinch my ankle.

"OW! Midna!" I yelled, and I saw my shadow wave. I growled and stomped off towards Lily. When I caught up, we walked towards the pillar in silence. When we got there, we were immediately ambushed by some Shadow Beasts. Lily and I made short work of them, and we created another warp portal. I saw some strange plant thing floating around, and it looked like we could use it to get up to the pillar, which I pointed out to Lily. We hooked onto it with our clawshots and finally made it to the pillar.

"What is this thing?" Mika asked, coming out of the shadows to stare up at it.

"It looks kind of familiar . . .," Midna remarked, coming out of my shadow as well. As I stared at it, I suddenly remembered where I had seen it before.

"It's the missing part of the Bridge of Eldin!" Lily and I exclaimed in unison. We looked at eachother.

"Whoa, that was weird," we said at the same time again. We narrowed our eyes at eachother.

"FRIED CUCCO!" we both yelled, once again at the same time.

"Uh, guys . . .," Mika interjected as we continued to glare at eachother.

"Maybe we should just take the bridge back," Midna suggested.

"We'll do it," Lily said. "You guys wait here." She nodded to Mika and he floated over and turned her into a wolf. He coated the bridge with Twilit Magic and lifted it up into the air. It dissolved into Twilit Squares and he and Lily followed suit. About a minute later they reappeared and Mika turned Lily back into her human form.

"There, now we can cross the bridge again!" Lily exclaimed happily.

"Yeah, but now we don't need to since we can just warp everywhere," Mina pointed out, and Lily glared at him.

"Well, excuse me for trying to be optimistic!" she yelled.

"Oh, you're excused," Midna replied, and he smiled when she growled at him.

"Don't start with me, Mika."

"Start what? I'm just excusing you for being rude."

"_I'm_ being rude?! You're the one who's making snappy comments!"

"I'm just saying what I think."

"Listen here, impy, I don't feel like arguing with you right now, so would you please shut up?!"

That made Mika mad.

"_Impy_?! How dare you call me impy, wolf girl?!"

Midna and I took this moment to back up out the way of any possible things that could be thrown should this argument turn violent.

"Well, you call me wolf girl! I thought it was time for you to have a nickname too!" Lily said, smiling as she saw Mika getting annoyed.

"You know what? Forget it. Wolf girl," Mika muttered as he went into her shadow.

"Impy," Lily said to her shadow.

"Wolf girl!" her shadow yelled.

"Impy!"

"WOLF GIRL!"

"IMPY!"

"SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU!" Midna screamed, and I had to cover my ears since her voice was so shrill. "Stop arguing and let's just go find the mirror! Geez, it's like a never ending fight between you two!"

"Hey, you and Link fight like that all the time!" Lily retorted.

"We do not!" Midna exclaimed.

"Uh, well, you _do_ sort of pick fights with me a lot," I said. I don't know what in Hyrule had possessed me to say that, but I regretted it instantly.

"_I_ pick fights with _you_?!" Midna yelled, and I winced. "You're the one who always starts them!"

"I do not!" I said. No getting out of this now.

"Look, you're doing it right now!"

"Nu-uh! You're the one that said I start the fights!"

"But you're the one that started arguing with me about it in the first place!"

"Guys, listen, I have an idea!" Lily said, stopping me from saying something back to Midna. The two of us just glared at eachother.

"Why don't Mika and Midna just follow along behind us," Lily suggested.

"Behind us?" I questioned.

"Yeah, as in, not in our shadows," Lily explained. "Then maybe everyone could cool off a little and by the time we get to wherever the mirror's supposed to be kept, everyone will be friends again."

"Sounds good to me," Mika said, coming out of Lily's shadow and going over to Midna.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Lead the way, _Hero_," Midna sneered.

"Gladly, _Midna_," I replied, and Lily and I began to walk towards the pillars we had seen when we had been taking to Aria earlier that day. We jumped down from the platform and used some more of those floating plant things to reach a chest hidden on a ledge. Lily and I split the rupees that were inside and then continued on towards the pillars. All of a sudden Lily stuck her hand out in front of me, signaling for me to stop.

"Hey, why'd you stop?!" Midna exclaimed as she ran into my back.

"Shh!" I hissed, trying to see what Lily was pointing at.

"Don't you tell me to shush-"

"Uh-oh. Midna, get back into my shadow," I said when I realized what Lily had been staring at. "Mika, you'd better go too."

"You can't order us around!" Midna snapped, coming around the front of me to glare.

"Midna, do you see what's over there?" I asked, pointing to where Lily was looking. I was getting a little tired of the imp's attitude.

"Bulblins!" she and Mika gasped when they saw the campsite that we had been looking at.

"Exactly," Lily said. "Now, will you two please go into the shadows so we can deal with these things?"

"I can handle myself, thank you very much," Mika said, crossing his arms in front of him.

"Look, we just don't want you guys to get hurt," I said, and Mika turned his gaze on me. After a moment he huffed and went back into Lily's shadow. I looked at Midna and she went back into mine.

"Okay, you wait here while I go take care of these guys," I said, starting to walk towards the campsite where a few bulblins were sitting around a campfire along with some boars.

"Oh no you don't," Lily said, tugging my arm back. "We're taking them down _together._ And besides, are you _trying_ to get shot to pieces?"

"What are you-oh," I said as I looked up and saw two bulblin archers standing atop two wooden towers.

"Okay, here's the plan: I'll take care of those two guys up there, while you focus on the ones by the fire," Lily explained. "I'm assuming you have a bow and some arrows, correct?"

"Yup, got 'em right here," I said, pulling out my bow and an arrow out of my quiver.

"Alright, you ready?" Lily asked.

"Let's go," I nodded. Lily took aim and fired two arrows at the archers on the towers. They hit them perfectly, but their yells attracted the attention of the bulblins on the ground. I quickly cocked an arrow as they jumped up and onto the boars, screeching in their strange language. I managed to shoot down one of the riders, but I had to jump out of the way as the second one nearly ran me over. Lily quickly got out another arrow and fired it as the bulblin began to charge at me. The arrow struck, and the bulblin fell off the boar and exploded into dust as the boar veered off to the side to avoid crashing into me.

"Thanks for that," I said, as Lily helped me stand up.

"You owe me," she said seriously, and then she smiled and punched me lightly on the shoulder. "Geez, Link, you're shaking!"

"Yeah, well, you would be too if you almost got run over," I muttered, walking over to one of the boars. I was surprised when it let me come near it without freaking out and trying to trample me.

"Hey, see those gates over there?" Lily asked, pointing to a set of wooden gates that seemed to be leading towards the pillars we were heading for.

"Think we can break them with our swords?" I questioned. Those gates looked pretty strong . . .

"Not likely," Lily replied, frowning.

"Well, then let's just use this guy," I said, patting the boar who let out a grunt. "I've seen these guys tear down gates in no time. Come here and I'll help you up."

"What, you actually think I'm gonna _ride_ on that thing?" Lily asked, looking at the boar disgustedly.

"Uh, yeah," I said, hoisting myself up onto the saddle. "Hop on!"

"Ew, no! That thing's gross!"

"Lily, please . . ."

"No!"

"Don't make me do this the hard way."

"What's that supposed to- hey, what are you doing?!" Lily exclaimed as I picked her up and seated her onto the saddle behind me.

"See, this isn't so bad now, is it?" I asked as I started to make the boar trot towards the gate.

"This is so _gross_!" Lily exclaimed, making a face.

"Okay, I'm gonna speed up now," I told her, bracing myself. I'd heard that boars could be sort of unpredictable when they ran really fast, but I wasn't sure exactly what that meant since this was the first time I'd actually ridden one . . .

"Wait, Link! Don't- AIEE!" Lily screeched as the boar reared up and she fell off the saddle. I turned to see if she was alright, but I was suddenly jerked forward by the boar, catching me off balance so I was just barely holding onto the reigns. The boar ran for a little while with me screaming and holding on for dear life, until it eventually broke through the gates and crashed into a wall, sending me flying off its back.

"Ow . . . my back . . .," I groaned as I stood up and rubbed it. My head snapped up when I realized what had just happened. "Oh my goddesses, Lily!"

I ran as fast as I could over to where she was sitting in the sand, holding her right wrist as Mika wrapped a piece of her tunic that she had ripped off around it.

"Oh my goddesses, Lily are you okay?!" I asked, frantically trying to check and see if she had any major injuries.

"Link, I'm fine, get off!" she snapped, trying to swat my hands away.

"For goddesses' sakes, Link, leave the poor girl alone!" Midna said, making me jump. I hadn't even noticed her come out of my shadow.

"Lily, I'm so sorry!" I apologized. "I didn't know that was gonna happen! Are you okay?! What happened to your wrist?!"

"I'm _fine_," she spat, letting Mika help her up. "It's just sprained."

"No thanks to you," Mika growled, glaring at me. Great, now I had _both_ imps mad at me.

"Luckily, I'm left-handed," Lily said, starting to walk towards the boar that had already recovered and stood up. "Let's go."

"Lily, are you sure you don't want to rest or something?" I asked. "I don't mind-"

"I said let's go! I don't want to talk about it!" Lily snapped, storming off. I looked after her in confusion as Midna shook her head and went back into my shadow.

"Idiot," I heard her mutter, before she was a silent shadow again. I glared at her before running to catch up with Lily. I followed her up some stone steps and she met up with the White Wolf who apparently taught her a new move. It was actually pretty frightening when she was learning the move, because first her eyes had rolled back and she fell to the ground, and then she got up and started acting like the Hero's Shade was teaching her the move in the real world, even though her eyes were still closed. I had to move out of the way as she nearly slashed me a few times. When she came to again, we started walking down a pathway where we could see the heads of many bulblin archers in the distance . . .

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**A/N: Oh no, another cliffhanger! Dun dun dun . . . reviews are greatly appreciated!**


	5. An Injured Hero

**A/N: Okay, as someone pointed out, I realized that the characters aren't really doing anything different than what happened in the game, so I'm going to try and change things around a little bit. I'll still follow tha plot of the game, but there's going to be things that happen here and there that are new. So, read and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I (sadly) don't own Link and Midna or any other Zelda-related thing.**

**An Injured Hero**

We walked through the pathway and came across an encampment swarming with bulblins. I started to walk forward, but Lily held me back.

"What?" I asked as I saw her looking hard at something.

"Up there," she said, nodding her head in the direction she was staring. I looked and saw a bulblin archer standing on top of a tower. I noticed that there were more archers off in the distance.

"If we don't get those guys out before they see us, they'll call all the other bulblins," I remarked, and Lily nodded in agreement. She took out her bow and cocked an arrow.

"Alright, I got this- ow!" she yelped, dropping the bow as her wrist twisted as she tried to aim for the archer.

"Maybe you should let me handle this one," I said, handing her back her bow. She sighed and reluctantly agreed. I took out my bow and managed to shoot down the archers using my Hawkeye. We then continued through the encampment until we came to a locked gate.

"Looks like it needs a key," Lily said, noticing the lock. "It's gotta be around here somewhere . . ." She started to walk in the direction we had been heading, but she quickly hid behind a wall when she was spotted by a bulblin that I assumed had been standing guard.

"Lily!" I hissed as the bulblin started coming towards me.

"Calm down, I have a plan!" she said. "Just stay right where you are!"

I looked at her like she was crazy but I decided to take her advice. The bulblin kept coming closer and just as I was about to take out my sword to kill it, Lily jumped out from behind the wall and brought her sword down on the bulblin's head with a shout. It immediately let out a shriek and fell to the ground, exploding into dust.

"There, problem solved," she said, putting her sword away and smiling at me.

"What the heck was that for?!" I yelled. "I could have just as easily killed they guy in two seconds instead of standing around as bait!"

"It's called payback, Link," Lily replied, smirking at me. She turned on her heel and walked off towards the other end of the encampment. I glared at her back and followed her. We ran into a lot more bulblins, but we managed to kill them all without receiving any major injuries, just a few scratches here and there. Eventually I defeated one who had been holding the key to the gate. We opened it and stepped inside.

We had come into a fairly small room made of wood with a lone boar standing in the corner. I went over to it, but Lily grabbed me by the collar and pulled me out of the way as the door opened and none other than King Bulblin strode in, carrying a giant axe. Of course, it was really Queen Bulblin I assumed since it was wearing what looked like a tunic with one shoulder strap and it just looked a little more feminine. But it was still fat. Really, really fat.

"Are you freakin' kidding me?!" Lily exclaimed as Queen Bulblin roared and knocked over the boar standing in the corner. "How are you even still alive?! I threw you off a bridge _twice_!"

Queen Bulblin just roared again and started to come towards us. I quickly ran around to the back of her while Lily stayed in the front. The Queen looked confused for a moment, before deciding that I was the one she wanted to fight. She turned and started lumbering towards me. Lily took this opportunity to strike her in the back with her sword, making her cry out in pain. She started to turn towards Lily, who just keep moving around to the back and hitting her with her sword.

"Lily, give it a rest!" I yelled as I saw Queen Bulblin becoming more and more aggravated.

"Why, I'm winni- AH!" Lily screamed as the Queen all of a sudden swung her axe and sliced Lily right across the stomach, sending her flying into the wall.

"LILY!" I yelled, running over to her and momentarily forgetting about the monster slowly coming towards us.

"Ooh . . . Link, I'm okay," she said as I checked her injury. The wound didn't look too deep, but it was bleeding profusely.

"Lily, you are _not_ okay," I said, ripping off a piece of my sleeve and pressing it to the wound. She hissed in pain and screwed her eyes shut.

"Link, stop it!" she yelled, pushing my hand away.

"You need to put pressure on it," Mika said, and I jumped since I hadn't heard him or Midna come out of the shadows.

"Okay, Link, I-I'm fine now," Lily said weakly, and I could see the color starting to drain from her face. "Go get . . . Queen Bulblin."

"But-"

"LISTEN TO HER, DOG BOY!" Midna yelled, and I immediately jumped up and whipped around to see Queen Bulblin almost close enough to touch. I narrowed my eyes at her and with a yell, brought my sword down on her arm so hard that she screamed and dropped her axe. She growled at me and then quickly walked out of the room, holding her injured shoulder. Just as I was about to turn back to Lily, I smelled something burning. I heard Lily gasp as the room started to go up in flames.

"Oh my goddesses, what are we gonna do?!" Mika asked frantically as he was still trying to make Lily stop bleeding.

"Um . . . there! The boar!" Midna exclaimed, pointing to the boar which had finally recovered from being hit by the axe.

"Okay, Lily, I'm gonna have to pick you up now," I said, putting my sword away and running over to her. She cried out in pain as I lifted her up and carried her over to the boar. I got on and, with the help of Mika and Midna, got Lily onto the saddle in front of me so I was holding her with one arm around her back and one arm over her front. The imps grabbed onto her to make sure she didn't fall off as I kicked the boar in the sides to make him speed up. He let out a cry and crashed through the gate just as the whole place went up in flames. We rode on until we came to the entrance to what looked like a temple, and I turned around just in time to see the room we were just in collapse onto the ground.

"Link, we need to do something, and fast," Mika remarked, gesturing to Lily who was now softly moaning. She was still bleeding so bad that it was starting to seep onto my tunic.

"Okay, let's lean her against that building," I said, and the imps helped me lift her up and carry her over to the building.

"Ow . . . it hurts," Lily groaned, and Mika bit his lip.

"It's gonna be okay," he said, taking her hand. He looked up at me with wide eyes. "It's gonna be okay, right Link?"

"Yeah, she's gonna be okay," I replied, trying to think of a way to stop the bleeding before she lost too much blood.

"Lily, just calm down," Midna said, petting her head soothingly, but I could see the worry in her eyes. All of a sudden, I had it!

"Chu jelly!" I exclaimed, and everyone looked at me like I was insane.

"What?" Mika asked.

"Chu jelly!" I repeated. "It's supposed to have amazing healing powers!"

"Oh right!" Midna said, remembering. She pulled a bottle of red chu jelly out of her invisible storage space and handed it to me.

"Oh, we only have half a bottle," I said. "Well, let's just hope this works . . ."

I opened the bottle and scooped out the jelly. Mika took the now blood-stained piece of my tunic away from Lily's wound as I began to rub the jelly on it. She cried out at first, but then she calmed down and just lay there, breathing short, gasping breaths.

"Okay, that's all I have," I said, wiping my hands off on my tunic.

"Hey, her wound stopped bleeding!" Mika exclaimed happily, and indeed Lily wasn't bleeding anymore.

"But the wound is still open," Midna said, and Mika's face fell. "We need to close it up fast before it gets infected, especially with all this sand flying around out here."

"I don't know what to do . . .," Mika admitted, handing his head.

"Hey, cheer up!" Midna said, grinning at him. "Did you forget about your Gift?"

"My _Gift_?! What Gift?!" Mika asked. Midna sighed exasperatedly.

"The one that Prince Zelig gave to you," Midna explained. "When his soul was joined with yours, he gave you a Gift, aka his life force. That force also comes with a little healing power."

"Oh, right!" Mika gasped, suddenly remembering.

"Okay, guys, this is all great to find out and stuff, but can you use those Gifts to help Lily now? And fast?" I asked, noticing how Lily's head was starting to lean to one side; she was barely conscious. The imps quickly turned to her and nodded to eachother. Midna took Mika's left hand in her right, and they placed their free hands just slightly over Lily's wound. They closed their eyes and my mouth opened in shock as their palms started to glow with a white, sparkling light. The light surrounded Lily who had just managed to open her eyes long enough to see what was happening to her. I watched with amazement as her wound actually closed up on its own, and when it was healed it looked like nothing had ever happened! There wasn't even a scar!

"Thanks, guys," Lily said, smiling weakly. That took up the last of her energy, and her head flopped to one side as she finally fell asleep.

"Good job," Midna said, giving Mika a high-five.

"You didn't do so bad yourself!" he said, smiling at her. They both turned to look at me, and I could see that they were extremely tired, but they were trying not to show it.

"Well, she should be all better by the morning," Midna said, smiling at me.

"Thanks, both of you," I said, and Mika grinned at me.

"Thank _you_, Link" he said. "We probably would have all been killed if you hadn't been there to get Queen Bulblin."

"Mika, you're getting sappy," Midna remarked, wrinkling her nose at him, and he stuck his tongue out at her. She smiled at him and then she turned back to me.

"Nice goin' dog boy," she said, lightly punching me on the shoulder.

"You too," I said, and then Mika yawned.

"Um, do you think it's okay to just stay here until morning?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, I'll take Lily inside the temple and I'll keep watch," I said, and he looked relieved.

"Well, in that case I'm gonna go to bed. That healing thing took a lot outta me," he said, and we waved as he went into Lily's shadow.

"You should go to bed too," I said, turning to Midna.

"I'm not tired," she said, stifling a yawn.

"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that," I laughed, and she glared at me.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she asked as I grabbed her under the shoulders and pulled her closer so her head was leaning against my shoulder.

"Trying to make you go to sleep," I said, putting one arm under her and one arm around her back so I was holding her like you would hold a child. I started to rub her back soothingly.

"You can't _make_ me do anything," she said, but she settled into my arms just the same. She actually looked kind of cute . . . After a few minutes I heard her breathing slow down and I realized she'd fallen asleep.

_Okay, now what do I do_? I thought to myself. I hadn't really thought about her not being able to go into the shadows if she was asleep . . . I sighed and tried to unwrap her arms from around my neck, but when I took my arms from around her, she was still holding on. I sighed again as I realized she wasn't going to let go anytime soon.

I walked over and gently picked up Lily and took her inside the temple. I used her hat to make some sort of makeshift pillow and I carefully laid her head on it. She sighed in her sleep and rolled over onto her side. I put my arms back around Midna and sat down next to Lily. I know I was supposed to keep watch, but I soon found myself slowly closing my eyes and leaning against the wall, and before I knew it I was out cold, surprisingly feeling safe in the little imp's arms.

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**A/N: I thought this story needed a little drama. Please review!**


	6. New Partners

**A/N: Yes, I finally got the next chappie up! Thanks to Twilit Guardian for the help with the ideas!**

**Disclaimer: Lily and Mika=mine. Link and Midna=Nintendo**

**New Partners**

My eyes snapped open at the sound of Lily's screams.

"GET 'EM OFF! GET 'EM _OFF_!"

I glanced over and saw her jumping up and down and shaking herself as if she was a dog that had just come out of a pool of water. It actually looked kind of funny . . .

"Lily, calm down!" Mika said, floating around her nervously. I sat up and saw Midna floating near her as well, and she smiled at me when she caught my gaze.

"CALM DOWN?! THERE'S FREAKIN' _BUGS_ ALL OVER ME AND YOU'RE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN?!" Lily screeched, and Mika flinched and floated back slightly.

"Bugs . . .?" I questioned, frowning. The dim light in the temple made it hard to see, but when I looked closer I could make out little black shapes crawling all over Lily's tunic.

"EW, THIS IS SO _GROSS_! HAAAH!" Lily yelled, doing a spin attack. All the bugs flew off her and landed on the ground, seeming to melt into it.

"Well, I see you're all better now," I said as Lily shivered and put her sword away. She glared at me.

"Well, well, look who finally decided to get up this mor- LINK, BY YOUR FOOT!" Lily screeched, pointing to the ground in front of me.

"What are- HOLY GODDESSES!" I yelped, stomping on a lone bug slowly crawling towards my foot.

"Eee hee! You scream like Lily," Midna giggled, and I turned to her.

"I do _not_ scream like a girl," I snapped, and Lily narrowed her eyes at me.

"What wrong with sounding like a girl?!" she asked.

"Nothing, if you _are_ a girl. I, however, am a boy."

"You sure about that?" Midna muttered, and then she looked up at the ceiling and put her hands behind her back when I growled at her.

"Let's just start exploring this temple before any more of those bugs appear," Mika suggested, and we all agreed. The imps went into our shadows as Lily and I started to walk towards the doorway leading deeper into the temple. We came into a room with a giant sand pit in the middle that would quickly suck in anything that happened to fall into it.

_Or anyone_, I thought grimly as we surveyed the area for a path we could take.

"Seems like the only path we can take is that one," Lily said, pointing to a piece of stone like the one we were standing on that wouldn't get sucked into the pit. "But we'll still have to go across the sand."

I followed her gaze and, sure enough, there was a ledge that we could stand on, but that would mean we had to cross the pit to get to it.

"Well, it's worth a try," I said. "Just be careful."

"Speak for yourself," Lily muttered, jumping over to the piece of stone. I slashed at one of those sand worm things we'd seen in the desert earlier as it jumped out at me, before following Lily onto the stone.

"Alright, I'll go first and then I'll help you across," I said, and Lily crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

"I thought we'd already established that I don't need help," she said, and I sighed and turned to her.

"Lily, if you honestly think I'm going to let you go out on your own after what happened last night, I have to question your sanity," I said, and then jumped out of the way as Lily took a swing at me.

"Guys, relax," Mika said as the imps came out of our shadows.

"Yeah, one wrong move and you could go into the pit," Midna remarked, and I looked at said pit and gulped. It was pretty big . . . and it looked deep, too . . .

"Maybe it'd be easier to travel on the said if you're a wolf," Mika suggested, and I nodded.

"Yeah, since I weigh less as a wolf it'll be easier for me to stay up," I agreed. "At least, I _think_ I'm lighter as a wolf . . ."

"Alright, sounds like a plan," Lily said. "Now hurry up so we can get out of this room! It makes me really uneasy for some reason . . . like something's gonna happen . . ."

Midna took out the Dark Crystal and touched my forehead, turning me into a wolf. She sat on my back as I got ready to cross the pit. I barked and ran towards the ledge with a burst of speed, just barely making it before my paws got stuck in the sand. I climbed onto the ledge and Midna turned me back into a human.

"Okay, Lily, you can come over now!" I called, and Mika took out the Dark Crystal and tried to touch Lily's forehead.

"OW! STOP IT!" Lily screamed as the Crystal touched her forehead and she crumpled to the ground. Midna rushed over to her as Mika put the Crystal away. Surprisingly, Lily hadn't turned into a wolf when she'd touched the Crystal. I suddenly had the feeling that something was wrong . . .

"What happened?!" Midna asked as she and Mika helped Lily stand up.

"I don't know . . .," Lily said, shaking her head as if to clear it. "As soon as I touched the Dark Crystal, there was this intense pain across my stomach, right where I'd gotten cut before."

"Uh- oh, that's not good," Midna muttered, looking as Mika who was biting his lip.

"I guess we could fly her over," he suggested. "You could grab one of her arms and I could grab the other and we could go over the sand."

"You think it'd work?" Midna asked.

"I'm pretty sure . . .," Mika said, glancing uncertainly at Lily.

"Pretty sure is good enough," Lily said, holding out her arms for the imps to grab onto. "Let's just go."

With one last worried glance at eachother, Midna and Mika each took one of Lily arms and tried to lift her up. With two of them instead of one, they were able to lift her off of the ground and fly with her in their arms.

They started to cross the pit, when all of a sudden something shot out of the sand and grabbed Lily's ankle. At first I thought it was another sand worm, but when I ran to the edge of the ledge I saw that it was a hand! It looked like it was part of a skeleton, since it was just bones and a few pieces of tattered fabric. But skeletons couldn't move on their own!

"AH!" Lily exclaimed as she was suddenly jerked out of the imps' grasps. She fell into the sand and instantly started moving towards the middle of the pit.

"LILY!" Mika screamed, diving after her. He managed to grab one of her outstretched hands, but his fingers slipped and he lost his grip.

"Mika!" Lily yelled, trying to keep her head above the sand. Midna quickly flew over and grabbed her hand, managing to keep a hold of it as Lily went farther and farther into the pit. Mika started after them as Lily started to go under, but I grabbed his hand and held him back.

"Wait, Mika! Let them go!" I yelled, as he started to writhe in my grip. For some reason I felt as if they would be okay if they went through the hole in the pit.

"ARE YOU INSANE?! LET ME GO!" Mika screamed, trying to push my hand away. Midna let out a yelp as she was pulled under the sand after Lily, and they disappeared out of sight. I heard the faint sound of something hitting a hard floor, and there were muffled cries of "ouch!"

"MIDNA?!" I called. "LILY?!"

"We're okay!" I sighed with relief as I heard Midna's voice.

"Where are you guys?!" Mika asked, wrenching his hand away from mine and floating to the center of the pit.

"We're in some sort of weird room," Lily replied, and I could see Mika's whole body relax as he heard her voice.

"Can you guys get out?" I asked, and there was a moment before Midna replied.

"There's a little doorway I think I can squeeze through," she said. "I can probably find a way out for Lily if I go through it."

"Do you want us to come down there?" Mika asked, and I could see him inching closer to the hole.

"No, no, stay up there!" Lily said quickly, and Mika stopped. "You guys go explore the rest of the temple. We'll meet up with you later."

"Lily, no offense, but we don't want to leave you girls alone in a strange room," I said, I and I swear I could almost feel her and Midna rolling her eyes.

"Just go, Link. We'll be _fine_," she reassured me.

"But, Lily-" Mika started to say, but he was cut off by Midna.

"Go with Link. I'll stick with Lily, and we'll meet up later," she said, but I wasn't ready to let them go alone just yet.

"Midna, you two are-" I started to say, but Midna once again cut in.

"Look, dog boy, how many times have I told you to listen to what I say?! Now, I'm telling you to go with Mika, understand?"

"But-"

"Link!"

"Okay, okay, I'll go with Mika," I gave in. I'd learned to trust Midna's judgment on things like this; she usually ended up being right. I just hoped this wasn't one of the few times she was wrong . . .

"Well then, we'll see you guys later," Mika said, floating back over to me.

"Good luck!" Lily called, and Mika looked sadly at me before going back into my shadow. He didn't want to do this any more than I did. I glanced one last time at the pit before reluctantly hoping off the ledge and onto another stone platform. I found a chain that I had to pull to open the door at the end and I hurried up the steps and into the next room, hoping Lily and Midna would be alright . . .

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**A/N: Sorry if this chapter's a little short . . . the next one should be longer! Button=click=review please!**


	7. Invisible Foes and a New Weapon

**A/N: Here's the next chapter! I thought I'd try switching POVs, since some of my friends thought it'd be interesting to see Lily's view on things. Anyways, enjoy!**

**Discalimer: I don't own anything Zelda-related.**

**Invisible Foes and a New Weapon**

_Lily's POV . . ._

Midna and I had landed in what looked like a large, round room. It was pretty dark, and I had to take out my lantern so we could see. The sand that should have been coming down on our heads from the pit was actually being held in place by a big, glass bowl that had tubes being fed up to the top of the pit. Well, that explained how there seemed to be a never-ending flow of sand . . .

"So, how are we gonna get out of here?" I asked Midna as she surveyed the room. Link and Mika had gone off on their own in the temple, which left Midna and I trying to figure a way to get out on our own.

"Well, I think I can squeeze through this hole right here," Midna replied, gesturing to a little hole in the wall. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could see a door right next to the hole.

"Um, couldn't we just use the door?" I asked, and Midna rolled her eyes.

"I already checked it," she replied. "It's locked."

"Oh."

"Yes, now I'm gonna try and get through the hole, so just hang on a minute."

I nodded and walked over to Midna, holding out the lantern for her to see.

"No, Lily, put the lantern away," Midna said hastily, and I gave her a confused look.

"But then you won't be able to see," I said, and Midna shook her head.

"Yes, I will be able to see," she assured me. "As long as there's still a little light in the room, I can see in almost complete darkness."

"But you still-"

"_Lily_," she cut me off, and I could see her getting aggravated. "Look, we don't know how long it's gonna take to get out of here, and I don't want you to use up all of your lantern fuel before we even get out of the first room!"

"Alright, alright, fine," I gave in, shutting off the lantern. The room instantly got darker, but I could see some light coming from the hole that Midna had started to crawl through again. I watched as she went around a bend and out of sight. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of a lock clicking and the door swung open.

"Ta-da!" Midna exclaimed, gesturing out into the hallway that the door lead to. I smiled and clapped as Midna bowed.

"Thank you, thank you," she said. She straightened up and looked at me. "Now, let's see where this tunnel goes to, 'kay?"

"Sounds like as good a plan as any," I replied, following her out of the room. The hallway was lit by lanterns burning brightly at regular intervals along the wall, but the hallway was so long that even they didn't help me see the end of it.

I walked along for a little bit with Midna floating by my side, until I suddenly felt as if something was crawling on me.

"Ugh . . . Midna do you see anything on my side?" I asked as I slowed down. It felt like whatever was on me wasn't actually hurting me, it was just really weighing me down.

"No, not real- HOLY GODDESSES! Lily, you gotta get those things off of you!" Midna yelled suddenly. Naturally, this reaction made me start to freak out a little.

"What?! What's on me?!" I said quickly, turning every which way to get a glimpse of what had seemingly latched itself onto my side.

"Eeeeew! They're so _gross_!" Midna said, shuddering, and I glanced up at her.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! Turn me into a wolf!" I said, surprised she hadn't already whipped out the Dark Crystal. She gave me a questioning look.

"Don't you remember what happened the last time you tried that?" she asked.

"Yeah, but that was Mika's Crystal! Maybe yours is different!"

"I don't know . . ."

"Midna, you were the one who told me to turn on my sense view in the first place!"

"Alright, alright, we'll try it with my Crystal! Just tell me if this hurts at all . . ."

Midna took out the Crystal and all of a sudden it felt like more of the seemingly invisible things had jumped onto me. Now almost everywhere felt heavy, and it also felt like there was something slightly gnawing on my sides. I braced myself for the pain I was sure would come when Midna touched my head, but surprisingly there was none. I just felt the familiar sensation of all my bones rearranging as I was transformed into a wolf.

"Oh, goddesses, now they're on my leg!" Midna screeched as I felt her sit down on my back, just like Mika would have done. I quickly turned on my sense view and let out a wolf shriek as I saw about twenty little rat things latched onto me. They looked like skeletons, and now I understood why I'd suddenly felt so heavy. I did a spin attack and sent the ghost rats flying. They landed on the floor and exploded.

_Whew, glad that's over with,_ I thought, giving a wolf sigh.

"Yeah, me too. That was disgusting!" Midna said, and I looked back at her.

_You can read my thoughts?!_ I asked, amazed.

"Well, I can read Link's, so why shouldn't I be able to read yours?" Midna replied, laying down on my back and resting her chin on her hands. "But don't worry, I can only read what you want me to read."

_Ah, okay. So, let's continue, shall we? Turn me back into a human, please._

"Aw, but I'm tired of floating!" the imp complained, and I rolled my eyes.

_You're too much like Mika,_ I thought, and she giggled. _Why don't you just hide in my shadow?_

"Because now that I can walk around in the light realm, I don't want to stay in the shadows!"

_Why don't you do just that? Walk, I mean._

"With these little legs?! It'd take me five steps for every one of yours!"

_Okay, you know what? Just ride on my shoulder. Mika's done it before, so I'm used to it._

"Link's let me do that too! Okay, I'll turn you back into a human."

Satisfied that she got her way, Midna floated off my back and touched my head with the Crystal again. I stood up when I was back in my human form and Midna sat down on my shoulder.

"Oh, and if I start running, please don't grab onto my hair," I said, and Midna looked at me like I was crazy.

"Why would I grab onto your hair?!" she asked.

"Well, if I started going to fast, Mika grabbed onto my hair to keep his balance," I explained. "He said that was why he liked it so long."

"Well that's rude!" Midna exclaimed. "That's not the purpose of having long hair!"

"Yeah, well try telling him that. Geez, sometimes guys are so annoying . . ."

"Hey, at least Mika doesn't wear a dress!"

"You think it's a dress too?!" I asked. "Mika insists that it's a tunic!"

"Uh, no, it's a dress," Midna replied, looking at my tunic which was exactly the same as Link's. "Link doesn't seem to believe that either."

"What's with them?! This is _obviously_ a dress!" I said, gesturing to my tunic, and Midna nodded.

"Try explaining that to Link," she said, smiling.

"I will when we get out of here," I replied, and then me and Midna looked at eachother. We'd been so busy talking to eachother that we'd forgotten where we were for a moment.

"Right, well, we'd better keep going," Midna said, and I started walking again. I hadn't even realized I'd stopped.

"Yeah, sorry, it's just . . . I haven't really talked to anyone but Mika for a while," I said.

"Yeah, I've been with Link for a while too," Midna said, and then she suddenly shook her head. "I mean, I've been _traveling_ with Link for a while. I haven't actually been_ with _him! That would be weird! But, um . . . aw, you know what I mean!"

"Uh-huh, I got it," I said, smiling as she looked forward. I swear I could see her almost blushing. We walked along for a little while in silence.

"So . . .," I said after a little bit. "What exactly happened between you and Zanta? I mean Zant?"

"Oh, um, well," Midna stuttered, and I felt her start to fidget as soon as I'd said that. "I-I'm sure Mika will tell you that later."

"I don't think so," I replied, and I could see Midna starting to get nervous. "He's never said anything to me so far, and I'm pretty sure we're almost done with our journey."

"Oh, well then-"

Midna was cut off as we heard a loud thump come from in front of us. We could see a circle of light coming from the ceiling of the hallway that we hadn't noticed before since we weren't really paying attention. Midna and I glanced at eachother and then she let out a yelp and grabbed onto my shoulder as I ran over to the circle.

"Oh my goddesses," I gasped as I looked up. I could see Link standing in a circular room that seemed to stretch way farther than the width of the hallway, and the view we had looked like we were looking up from the floor. But what really made Midna gasp was the monster he was facing.

It was big, at least three times the size of Link, with two large horns coming from his head. His face looked like some sort of animal skeleton and it was holding a giant sword. Link was watching it as it spun in circles around him.

"LINK, BEHIND YOU!" Midna screamed, floating up and pounding on the ceiling of the hallway as the monster stopped right behind him. As if he'd heard her, Link rolled out of the way just in time as the sword came crashing down right where he'd been standing.

"HIT HIS HAND, LINK! NO, NOT HIS SIDE, YOU IDIOT, HIS HAND!" Midna continued to scream, and I had to cover my ears since she was so loud.

"Midna, shut up!" I hissed, and she turned around to glare at me. "I don't think he can hear you!"

"How do you know?!" she snapped, and then she turned around again.

"If you keep screaming, you're gonna attract the attention of anything and everything that's down here!" I said quickly as Midna cupped her hands over her mouth to start yelling commands at Link again. She paused for a moment, and then she floated back down to sit on my shoulder again and watch the battle above us.

A few minutes later, the battle was over. I released the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding as the monster let out an ear-piercing screech and exploded into bats that floated up and out of the cave. I saw Link sigh with relief and then he ran over to a part of the room we couldn't see.

"Hey, where is he going?! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Midna yelled, flying back up to the ceiling.

"Midna, stop it!" I yelled, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her back down to my level. "Remember what I said?!"

"Yeah but- what in the world is that?!" she exclaimed, and I glanced up to see what she was staring at. My mouth opened in shock as I saw him riding around the sides of the room on a spinner! The spinner was supposed to be one of the weapons made for the Hero Chosen by the Goddesses, and since this was _my_ realm that meant the Hero was me!

"Why does he get the cool weapon?!" I exclaimed, jumping up to pound on the ceiling, just like Midna had done a moment before. "LINK, YOU'D BETTER GIVE THAT TO ME WHEN WE MEET UP, YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Lily, calm down! Remember what you said!" Midna said, smiling as I glared at her.

"Oh, he is _so_ gonna get it if he doesn't give that to me!" I threatened, watching as he went around the room a few times until he went out of sight. I frowned at the smile on his face.

"Come on, let's keep going," Midna suggested, tugging on my hand. I sighed and followed her down the hallway . . .

***

_Link's POV . . ._

Aw man, the spinner was AWESOME! I'd just gotten it after defeating the mini-boss of the dungeon, and I'd been riding on it for a while. Okay, I'll admit it- I did get sick at first, since I wasn't used to all the spinning, but after that it was so fun to ride along the walls!

Mika and I had been traveling through the temple for a while, and we still had no clue how Lily and Midna were doing. Although, when I was fighting the mini-boss I could've sworn I'd heard Midna screaming at me, but it was probably just Mika since they both sounded kind of alike.

"You know, Lily's gonna want that when we find her," Mika said as I was walking towards the next chamber. He insisted that the spinner made him dizzy, so I had to walk while he was sitting on my shoulder.

"Well, I found it first, so tough luck for her," I replied, and Mika laughed.

"I don't think she's gonna accept that without a fight," he said, grinning at me.

"Well, whatever, we'll deal with her when we find her," I said, taking out my map. "Now, if we're in this room right here, then that means . . . the boss key should be right behind that door!"

"Hey!" Mika exclaimed, grabbing onto my hair as I started to run.

"Ow! Mika, let go!" I said, stopping and trying to pry his hands off.

"Sorry, that's how I stay on Lily's shoulder when she runs," he replied, letting go of me.

"By grabbing onto her hair?!" I asked, raising one eyebrow at him.

"Well, her hair is longer than yours!"

"Yeah, but you still don't have to grab onto it! You're gonna end up pulling it out one of these days!"

"Nu-uh! She tells me if it hurts and then I stop!"

"Well then, I'm amazed that you guys got this far . . ."

"Hey! Don't get snappy, dog boy!"

"Only Midna can call me dog boy!" I yelled, and Mika smiled at me.

"Fine, then how about fluff ball?" he asked, grinning at me.

"Wha- _fluff ball_?! That sounds like a freakin' cat!" I said.

"Well, sometimes I _do_ have to question if you really are a wolf . . ."

"How dare you?! You little . . . you little short person!" I smiled as Mika snarled at me and floated off of my shoulder.

"Don't call me short!" he screeched, and I rolled my eyes.

"Well, _excuuuuuuse_ me!" I said, crossing my arms in front of me.

"Oh my goddesses, will you stop freakin' sayin' that?!" Mika yelled. "That's all I've heard since we got split up! Geez, if you say that around Midna as much as you've been saying it around me, then I'm surprised you haven't driven her insane!"

"I'll keep saying that until you agree not to call me fluff ball or dog boy!" I said.

"No!"

"Okay then . . . well, _excuuuuuuse _me!"

"Stop it!"

"Hey, _excuuuuuuse_ me!"

"SHUT UP!"

"_Excuuu-_"

"OKAY, OKAY, I'LL JUST CALL YOU LINK!" Mika finally yelled, and I smirked triumphantly.

"Good."

"Are you happy now?!"

"Yup, I think I'm good."

"Okay, well I'm goin' in the shadows until you find Lily and Midna," Mika said, going into my shadow. "And don't bother me until you find them!"

"I wouldn't _dream_ of it," I said sarcastically, and then I jumped as Mika pinched my ankle. I tried to stomp on him, but he moved out of the way. I growled and started walking towards the door to the next chamber.

If anyone had been watching us as we journeyed through the temple, they could tell that the alone time had done nothing to help our relationship. If fact, it might possibly have made it worse . . . we'd been arguing constantly throughout the whole temple, usually about Mika wanting to go back and look for them down in the pit. I had eventually convinced him against it; I had a feeling that they weren't where we'd left them anymore.

So, after many, many arguments, we'd finally made it to the room with the boss key. I grabbed the key from the chest and then I used my new spinner to get back to the first chamber in the second part of the temple- the part after those freaky Poe things. I used my spinner to move a wall and reveal a winding staircase. I went up the staircase using- guess what?- my spinner!

I eventually made it to the door leading into the boss chamber. I unlocked the heavy, metal door and stepped inside . . .

* * *

**A/N: For those of you who didn't know, that line: "Well _excuuuuuuse_ me!" was from the Zelda TV show. It's so bad it's funny . . . at least, in my opinion. You should check out some clips on Youtube if you haven't seen it before . . . anyway, review please!**


	8. Dinosaurs and Mirrors

**A/N: Finally, another update! Sorry if this chapter is a little tedious . . . I wrote most of it a while ago and when I read it over I realized I'd made the fight with Stallord really, really detailed, but I didn't want to redo the whole thing. Oh, and the end might be kind of abrupt because I just wanted to get this chapter done so I could update. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Read on!**

**Disclaimer: Me?! Own _Zelda?!_ Pff, I wish!**

**Dinosaurs and Mirrors**

_Link's POV . . ._

I stepped into a huge, round room. The door slammed shut behind me as I walked towards the center, where I could see something sticking out of a huge pit. It was full of sand which, surprisingly, wasn't moving, unlike all of the other sand scattered around the rundown temple. As I cautiously walked forward, I saw that the thing that was sticking out of the pit was actually a giant skeleton, probably from some old dinosaur that had gotten stuck in the sand. I warily went up to it, and then I jumped back slightly as a figure suddenly appeared on top of the skeleton's head.

The figure looked almost exactly like Zant, except for the long, orange hair sticking out from the bottom of the helmet she was wearing. I assumed this had to be Zanta.

"You still live . . . How astonishing." Her voice was high and whiney, and it made me cringe when she spoke. "No wonder some call you Hero. But this is truly a bittersweet reunion- hey wait, you're not Lily!"

"Took you long enough," I muttered, and then I said louder: "No, I'm _Link_."

"Are you a boy?!" I frowned at the question.

"Of course I'm a boy!"

Zanta tilted her head to one side, as if she were confused.

"Then . . . why are you wearing a dress?"

I groaned and took out my sword, pointing it at the Twili.

"Look, I don't know why you all think this is a dress, but it is a TUNIC!" I thrust my sword towards her threateningly, but she just laughed at me.

"Whatever, weirdo. Now, where's Lily and Mika? Did that little brat finally die in the temple?" I could hear the evil smile in Zanta's voice.

"Wait," I whispered to Mika as I saw him moving around in my shadow like he was about to come out and start screaming at Zanta. Just then, we all turned to look at the other side of the pit as we heard a loud bang. A door in the wall that I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't looking for it opened, and out stepped Lily. I sighed with relief as she saw me, smiled, and pointed to her shadow on the ground.

"There you are!" Our heads snapped up to Zanta as she spoke, and I saw Lily flinch and take out her sword. "I thought you were dead!"

"No, but _you_ will be!" Lily tried to sound threatening, but Zanta merely chuckled darkly.

"You talk pretty tough. But let's see how you do with an even tougher enemy!" Zanta put her hands together and a sword materialized in her hands. She quickly spun it around and thrust the blade deep into the head of the dinosaur.

"You and Stallord play nice!" Zanta cackled, and then she warped away. Lily and I looked across the pit at each other for a split second, before the dinosaur, Stallord, started to shake. A red glow appeared in his eyes and he rose up off the ground with a mighty roar that made the whole floor rock. That was when the sand started to move. Lily gave out a yelp as the sand under her feet shifted and she was nearly knocked over.

"Link, do something!" Mika yelled from my shadow.

"I'm on it!" I quickly got out my spinner and jumped on. I rode around the pit and when I was a few feet away from Lily, my shadow jumped to her and her shadow jumped to me. Lily still hadn't gotten her balance, and she pitched forward just as I was about to grab her hand.

"You missed, you idiot!" I was only slightly relieved to see Midna pop out of my shadow and float next to me as I continued to travel around the pit.

"Hey, she moved! It's not my fault, it's hers! Ow!" I almost lost my balance as Midna smacked me on the head.

"Don't argue, just go get her! It looks like that skeleton's going to do something big!" I glanced over and saw Stallord standing up straighter, as if he was charging up for something. I quickly sped up and turned my gaze back to Lily. She had gotten her balance back and was trying to make her way over to the edge of the pit. Poor girl. I guessed she hadn't gotten used to the sand before because Mika kept helping her up as she almost fell over several times.

"Lily, hold out your hand!" Lily looked over at me as I called out to her. Mika and Midna went back into the shadows as I came near Lily again. My back suddenly felt extremely hot, and when I looked back I saw that Stallord was breathing out a huge cloud of steamy, purple gas that I was pretty sure wouldn't have a good effect if it touched me. I looked back at Lily. If I didn't grab her this time, she'd be toast!

She tried to hold out her hand as I came up to her, but she tripped and went forward again. Fortunately, I managed to grab the front of her tunic and pull her up onto the spinner before the purple gas descended around her. I sighed with relief again when she was on the spinner behind me, managing to stay balanced. However, the relief didn't last long.

"HOW DARE YOU GRAB ME THERE?!" Lily screamed, pounding on my back with her fists.

"I just saved your life!" I was shocked that she didn't realize she would've been roasted had I not grabbed her.

"YOU GRABBED MY CHEST, THAT'S WHAT YOU DID, YOU PERVERT!" She yelped and quickly grabbed onto my shoulders as she nearly fell backwards off the spinner. When she'd regained her balance, she glared at me. "Just because you're saving my life does not mean you get permission to try and grab my chest!"

"Wha- I did no such thing!" I yelled at her, trying to glare back at her while still keeping my eye on the dinosaur. The spinner seemed to be just too fast for him to catch.

"Well your hand was close enough!"

"GUYS!" Lily and I looked at Mika as he came out of the shadows. "Can we please focus on the giant, Hero-eating dinosaur in the center of the room instead of on Link grabbing Lily's chest?!"

"But I didn't grab her-"

"_LINK!_" I winced as Midna came up and screamed in my ear. "JUST GET THE FREAKIN' DINOSAUR BEFORE HE KILLS US ALL!"

I let out an annoyed breath as I tried to think of a plan. Lily was still holding onto my shoulders because every time she let go, she almost fell off the spinner. It was just big enough to fit the both of us, but not exactly comfortably.

"What do I do . . .," I muttered to myself as I looked at the dinosaur. I had to find some way to kill it, presumably by getting the sword stuck in its head out. But, the problem was just that: it was stuck in his head, and Lily and I were all the way on the floor. The only people who could fly up there were Midna and Mika, but I didn't want to put them in any danger.

I heard Lily give a snort behind me when she heard my question, and I frowned at her.

"Alright, let's see you come up with an idea then!"

"Okay, how about this: use the spinner to glide across the sand and over to Stallord's spine. When you get there, hack into it with the spinner and see what happens. My guess is his spine will crack and he'll fall over." I stared slightly openmouthed at Lily as she finished. She smiled at me. "But that's just a suggestion."

"T-that's actually pretty good . . ." I admitted, and Lily smiled even more. "But . . . it's going to be kind of hard to maneuver the spinner across the sand with both of us on it, isn't it?"

"Okay, then you go be a diversion." I looked at Lily, confused.

"What?"

"Go distract Stallord so I can go hit him in the spine!"

"Wha- no! Why do _I_ have to be the distraction?!"

"You've already had your turn with the spinner! It's my turn! Besides, this thing _is_ rightfully mine, seeing as _I_ was the one who was supposed to find it in the first place."

"Yeah, but _I_ was the one who actually won it!"

"Both of you stop arguing and decide who's going to be a distraction before Mika and I push one of you _off_ the stupid thing!" Midna snarled, and by the look on her face I knew she meant it. I glanced back at Lily, saw she wasn't going to give in, and slumped my shoulders in defeat.

"Alright, I'll be a distraction," I said. "Hold on one more second."

Lily gripped my shoulders tighter as I slowed the spinner to a stop. I quickly helped her up out of the pit and over to a little niche in the wall with a pot in it. Mika took the spinner and stowed it back in his invisible storage space.

"Okay, on three, you run out and start being distracting, and I'll wait until you have Stallord's attention, and then I'll run out and try to hit him," Lily said, watching the dinosaur look around to see where its prey went.

"Uh, alright, but what do I-"

"Ready? THREE!" I cried out in surprise as Lily shoved me with such force that I nearly fell flat onto my face. She pushed me out into Stallord's view and then sprinted back to the niche in the wall.

"Oh yeah, that's real funny- hey!" I whipped around as Midna tugged on my chin to make me face forward. I gulped as I saw Stallord staring down at me, his red eyes gleaming. "Um, hi?"

"RAAAAAAAAAAR!"

I jumped back as the skeleton roared at me, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Lily dart around the room so she was behind him.

"AH! Midna, get out here and help me!" Midna came out of my shadow again and hit me on the back of my head. "Ow! What the heck was that for?!"

"Stop bugging me and keep distracting the stupid dinosaur!" Midna yelled at me, pointing to Stallord who was starting to turn around as Lily hid in another gap in the wall. The imp went back into my shadow, leaving me to come up with a brilliant plan.

"Uh, okay, uh . . . HEY UGLY!" Stallord turned around as I took a bomb and threw it at him. It didn't hurt him in any way, but I didn't think it would've anyway. "Yeah, I'm talkin' to you! You wanna piece of this?! Huh?! Do you want- OH, HOLY GODDESSES!"

I started to run around the pit as Stallord breathed out another cloud of purple gas. I looked over and tried to see what Lily was doing, but at that moment I tripped and fell, landing hard on my knees. I tried to stand up, but I only managed to cry out in pain and fall back down. The purple gas was almost upon me, and I closed my eyes and prayed to the Gods that Lily got to Stallord soon . . .

* * *

_Lily's POV . . ._

What an idiot.

I told Link to go and distract Stallord, but all he managed to do was insult him, waste a bomb, and then fall down and get hurt. Hmph, some Hero _he_ was.

But, at least he'd given me enough time to sneak around the back of the dinosaur and get on the spinner track. As soon as I saw the skeleton breathe out some more of that purple stuff, I jumped off the track and rode across the sand to his spine. I hit it, and the gas immediately stopped coming from his mouth, his head whipped back in surprise, and his spine crumbled.

And it was just in time, too. A few seconds later, and Link would've been fried.

The impact of hitting Stallord's spine sent me rocketing back to the track, where I readied myself for another attack. I had to jump off the track sooner than I'd planned because these weird spike things appeared out of nowhere and started to come up behind me. I had a feeling that it'd be wise not to run into them.

Still, I was able to make it to the spine again, ignoring the dead soldiers that popped up out of the sand to just stand there uselessly, staring at me. I hit the dinosaur's spine again and it crumpled once more. One more hit should do it . . .

As I got back onto the track, I caught a glimpse of Link staggering over to the niche in the wall where we'd been before. He looked alright, just a little weak in the knees. I focused my attention back on Stallord and jumped off the track. However, this time I hit some dead guards with shields that appeared around the spine as soon as I got close to it.

"Goddesses damn it!" I cursed as I shot back towards the track. No choice but to get the guards first. I jumped off the track again and hit two more guards. They shattered into pieces like the first one, leaving a big enough gap for me to squeeze through. I did just that, and this time Stallord let out a mighty roar before crashing down to the ground, the light in his eyes growing dim.

I heard Link whoop happily as I continued around the track towards where he was sitting. I put the spinner away and ran over to him . . .

* * *

_Link's POV . . ._

I stood up as Lily ran over to me, using the wall for support.

"Good job!" I smiled at her as she reached me and grabbed my elbow to help me stand up fully. My knees still hurt a little, but it was bearable and they had stopped bleeding.

"Thanks. You okay?" Lily looked at me, concern in her eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just a couple scratches. So, you wanna go check out that sword?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's go."

I followed Lily back out towards the pit. While we'd been talking, all the sand had mysteriously disappeared and all that was left of Stallord was his head, the sword still lodged firmly in his skull. There was also a spot for the spinner to fit into in the middle of the floor. When we got close to the dinosaur's head, Mika came out of Lily's shadow and floated over to the head, examining it.

"Is it . . . dead?" he asked, looking back at us.

"Well, yeah, I think so," Lily replied as we came to a stop. Mika bit his lip and shook his head.

"I don't feel very relieved for some reason . . ."

"Yeah, why is only his head left instead of it disappearing with the rest of him?" Midna said, joining Mika by Stallord's side.

"It looks okay," I said.

"Hey, Link, what's this?" I glanced over and saw Lily looking at the hole in the floor where the spinner would go.

"That's for the spinner." I walked over and held out my hand. "I'll take care of it. Just let me see the spinner for a minute."

"No, I'm not letting _you_ have it again!" I sighed at Lily's stubbornness.

"Just give it to me."

"No!"

"Lily, give it to him." Lily looked shocked at Midna's interjection.

"But-"

"Me and Mika are sick of hearing you two argue all the time!" She floated right next to Lily to whisper in her ear. "Plus, if it's a trap, Link'll fall into it instead of you."

"HEY! I heard that!" I yelled angrily, glaring at Midna. She grinned and winked, giggling as she went into my shadow.

"Well, here you go, Link." Mika floated over and held out the spinner to me. "Just like you wanted."

"You all are so mean to me," I grumbled as I snatched the weapon from Mika. I put it into the slot and, forgetting that I'd just gotten injured like the genius I am, started to jump up and down.

"Owowowow!" I gasped and fell back off the spinner, ungracefully landing on my butt. Lily bent down as I held my knees.

"You okay?" I looked up at her. The pain in my knees was intense; my eyes were starting to tear up.

"Not really," I answered truthfully. "I don't think I can use that spinner thing right now. You have to use it."

"Uh, okay. How?"

"Just put in into that slot in the floor and start bouncing up and down. You should hear gears starting to turn, and then something should happen, like maybe a wall will move or something."

"Alright, I'll try it."

I curled up into a ball as Lily went over to the spinner slot, wishing the pain would go away. It _was_ ebbing away, but very slowly. I looked up as Midna came out of my shadow and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Are you really okay?" She actually looked kind of concerned.

"Yeah, I'm getting better." I gave her a half smile. "I'll be back on my feet in no time!"

"Okay, just try not to push yourself too hard. You know, most injuries like that get worse if you try and run around on them."

"Thanks for the advice, but I'll take my chances." I took a deep breath and stood up, Midna trying to help pull me up by my elbow. I swayed violently for a minute, but then the worst of the pain went away and I let out the breath I was holding. "I need to get out of this temple before I get stuck here."

Just then, I was knocked back off my feet as the floor under me started to tremble violently.

"AH! What did I do?!" Lily yelped, jumping off the spinner as the floor started to rise into the air.

"It's okay. I think it's supposed to do that," I replied. She came over to me and we stood near the edge of the platform, watching the ground disappear beneath us. When it stopped, Lily let out the breath she'd been holding and I turned around just in time to see the head of Stallord float up into the air, the red glow returning to his eyes.

"LILY, WATCH OUT!" I pushed her out of the way as the head shot forward, right towards me, knocking me off the platform. I screamed and scrunched my eyes shut, just in time to catch a glimpse of Stallord coming after me before I hit the bottom . . .

* * *

_Lily's POV . . ._

"LINK!" I yelped as he was pushed off the platform. I jumped to my feet and ran to the edge as Stallord went in after him. I peered down and saw Link gingerly getting to his feet, wincing as Midna helped him up.

"I'm okay!" he called up to me. Just then, Stallord's head shot a fireball out of its mouth that Link only just managed to dodge.

"Hang on, I'll help you!" I said to him. He jumped on the spinner track running along the wall of the platform and started to ride along it, and Stallord's head disappeared around the bend. I started to run along the edge of the platform in time with Link.

"Just leave it to me! I can do it!" he yelled up at me. I sighed exasperatedly and ran a little ahead of him to see where Stallord was, trying to think of a plan.

"Aha! I got it!" I ran back to Link. "Link, Stallord's head is just around the corner. I'll shoot an arrow at the sword and hopefully that'll make him fall down. When he's on the ground, then you can go and slash at the sword!"

"Okay, we'll try it! AH! There he is!"

Mika handed me my bow from his invisible storage space. I knocked an arrow and aimed, firing it at the point where the sword touched the skull. Stallord roared when he was hit, and he fell sideways onto the ground. Link quickly jumped off the spinner and ran over to the head, slashing at the sword. As I predicted, the head got up again, so we repeated this process two more times until, finally, the head let out a mighty groan and exploded, the sword flying up and lodging itself onto the top of the platform. Link rode his way up to the top and came to stand next to me. He patted my shoulder and smiled as the sword exploded. Two heart containers fell out.

"Hey, someone must know we're here!" Link remarked as we went over to pick up a heart container.

"Yeah, but that's not necessarily a good thing," Midna said, coming out of the shadows along with Mika.

"Well, besides that, you guys did it!" Mika exclaimed, smiling happily. "We're almost at the Twilight Mirror! Now we'll be able to kill Zanta and everything'll go back to normal!"

"_And_ hopefully we'll get to find a way back to _our_ realm," Midna added, and Mika nodded.

"Of course! I didn't forget about you two! Now come on, let's go! The Mirror's waiting!"

He and Midna went back into the shadows as a bridge appeared, leading us off the platform and over to a flight of stairs. Link and I looked at each other.

"After you," he said, gesturing for me to go first. I nodded and started walking, smiling as I felt that soon, all of this would be over for good . . .

* * *

**A/N: Well, there you go. As I said before in the author's note, I'm not sure when the next chapter's going to be up, but it may be a little while. Hang in there! And please review, of course!**


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